From left to right: The Sergeant, Beverly, Anthony Williams, The Sick Kid, and Juan.
Bad Day L.A. is a PC game designed by in 2006 by American McGee and developed by Enlight Software, where the player is Anthony Williams a former Hollywood agent turned vagrant. Taking place in the city of Los Angeles, California the city is suddenly hit with a ton of disasters ranging from an earthquake to a terrorist attack all at the same time. With everything going to hell, it's up to Anthony to save the day.
This game contains examples of:
- Aerosol Flamethrower: The flamethrower weapon offered in the game, which as a Zippo style lighter attached to it.
- Artistic License – Military: The Mexican Army inexplicably have tanks, which they don't have in real life.
- Asshole Victim: There are tons of these in the game, like the the man who honked at Anthony, asked him to put out his car's fire, drove off, got a shotgun, and used it to demonstrate what to not do and what to do in an non-simulated fashion! A guy he shot at then punched him from behind killing him.
- Big Damn Heroes: The gang that Anthony forms.
- Black Comedy: There's plenty of jokes about people dying in a humorous fashion.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done by the asshole victim above to explain what not to do and what to do in the game.
- Cel Shading: This game has a very cartoony art style.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Anthony does this when he has the getaway pilot fly without the group but then makes him turn the chopper around to get everyone.
- Character Development: In the first third of the game Anthony is very selfish and sleazy, but as the game goes on, he becomes selfless and more caring.
- Chase Scene: When Anthony is shooting out of the ambulance, he's being chased by the terrorists.
- Colonel Badass: The Sergeant, obviously with his role in the military and kicking ass.
- Crapsack World: The entire city of Los Angeles in this case not just with the disaster and all but with its belligerent people.
- Cutscene: This game has them to inject some life into this crazy story.
- Deadpan Snarker: Anthony is this BIG TIME.
- Discretion Shot: When Anthony takes a crap in front of everyone on the highway the camera points upwards on the relieved expression on his face.
- Double Agent: Juan turns out to be one working for the Mexican Army to take over Los Angeles.
- Double Entendre: A man in a burger costume is being chased by some zombified dogs so he screams, "They want my pickle!" which Anthony responds with "Don't talk about yo pickle to me!"
- Dressed in Layers: The Mexican Army when disguised as normal yard workers.
- Dumb Blonde: Beverly.
- Earthquakes Cause Fissures: Happens dramatically in the game environment forcing Williams to jump over gaps onto platforms that were once level continuous ground.
- Expy: Anthony is basically Tyrone Biggums if he wasn't a crack addict.
- Escort Mission: Half the missions in the game are defending helpless citizens from being killed.
- Face–Heel Turn: Juan, your second ally after the Sick Kid and first combat-capable buddy, turns out to be an infiltrator as a general in the Mexican Army when they invade in the last portion of the game. When the gang decide to fight back against him in hopes of escaping (yet again), he decides to try to execute them all - and gets flattened by the Zombie Virus Bomb.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Anthony obtains the Aerosol Flamethrower version of this.
- Flesh-Eating Zombie: One of the many things to worry about in the apocalypse.
- Flipping the Bird: Anthony does this to a couple of rude drivers before shit starts hitting the fan.
- Gangbangers: Many Black and Hispanic gangs take over the city.
- Giant Mook: The Wacburger costume guy turns into a giant and can't be killed so he can only be avoided.
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom: The gang experiences a tsunami as they try to escape Los Angeles by boat.
- Goofy Suit: Guy in the burger costume mentioned above.
- Gorn: There's plenty of it with all the people getting smashed, dismembered, eaten, with all the disaster. Thankfully, the simplistic art-style tones down the violence levels though.
- Heads-Up Display: You have one for everything in this game, your health, your weapon, your ammo count, etc.
- Heal Thyself: The medical packs in this case are bands of gauze.
- Hellish Copter: Every time Anthony manages to find a chopper to ride in it ends up crashing for whatever reason.
- Hellish L.A.: It's right there in the title. Los Angeles is portrayed as a place that outright deserved to get destroyed.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: In the Fire Chapter of the game Anthony does this for a mom, a sex doll, and Beverly's Chihuahua.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Anthony stays behind to detonate the bomb in the city while everyone else leaves.
- Homeless Hero: The protagonist.
- Incredibly Durable Enemies: Even the weakest enemy can take two point-blank shotgun blasts to the face before going down.
- It's Up to You: Anthony has to do pretty much everything!
- Jerkass: Anthony is pretty much the kind of guy that nobody likes, and he knows it before returning it in spades. In spite of this, the game's mechanics force you to be heroic to progress (with Williams remarking on it and being an ass in the process), before he almost spontaneously takes a level in kindness thanks to the Sick Kid calling him a hero. Doesn't stop him from being racist towards the Mexican Army while saving the city. Of course, a fair amount of the people he's a jerk to kind of deserve it.
- Just to highlight how much of an asshole he starts off as, early game he has to save a baby in danger. When he doesn't feel like trying to carry the baby back to its mother, however, he just opts to punt it like a football at her and then cracks a one liner afterwards.
- Karma Meter: This game has one that refers to how hostile non-infected people are towards you. Do good things and they leave you alone, do bad things and they attack you.
- Life Meter: Represented by numbers under Anthony's HUD face.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Anthony's job caused him to adopt an extremely cynical view of society, to the point where he deliberately got himself fired by coming into his boss's office naked and throwing poop at him He changes his view over the course of the game.
- Magic Antidote: The Sick Kid finally gets this at the end to stop vomiting.
- Molotov Cocktail: Anthony can carry plenty of these flaming bottles!
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Anthony is based on Dave Chappelle and Beverly is clearly based on Paris Hilton.
- Overreacting Airport Security: Anthony and the gang have to deal with this when they try to get on the plane out of L.A.
- Player Inventory: Anthony has this in the form of Hyperspace Arsenal with all the weapons and items he can carry at once.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Anthony and the General repeatedly uses racial epithets towards Mexicans near the end of the game.
- Power Ups: This game is LOADED with them such as ones that increase your health which include fast food, soda, alcohol, and even porn magazines complete with a masturbation sound when picked up.
- Prone to Vomiting: The Sick Kid due to a disease he has. He gets cured at the end of the game.
- Rail Shooter: The game has a segment where you shoot a machine gun while in the back of an ambulance.
- Sassy Black Woman: The main boss at the airport is this.
- Satire: This game has plenty to say about modern society and how dysfunctional it is.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Averted-the shotgun is pretty weak due to every enemy being a bullet sponge. It's not even an example of Short-Range Shotgun; literally poking the enemy with the barrel before firing has the same effect as shooting from six feet away.
- Shout-Out: Sometimes when fighting, Anthony will say things like "Another one bites the dust!" which is a reference to a Queen song of the same name and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean".
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Anthony is a very foul-mouthed individual.
- Stereotype: This game plays around with them such as the blue collar Hispanic worker as well as the white, military, patriotic, American trooper.
- Sniper Rifle: A Barrett M95 to be exact.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Happens too many times to count in the game.
- Unlikely Hero: Once again, the protagonist who originally just wanted to fend for himself.
- Tagalong Kid: The Sick Kid is a perfect example of this.
- Thwarted Escape: EVERY TIME. Something just happens to bring the group back to Los Angeles whether their aircraft gets crashed down or a Tsunami hits, they coming back!
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The Sick Kid, EVERY TIME.
- Vulgar Humor: There's a TON of it in the game such as Anthony talking about "Mud Butt" "If you don't want to see my mud butt, you best close yo eyes!"
- X-Ray Sparks: Happens whenever you get shocked in this game for example by a taser.
